Bre/Trudy's Baby Shower

What a sweet angel. Trudy is 3 1/3 months old!  Bre sent this darling photo and it sparked a memory....I need to blog her BABY SHOWER.... Join with me as we look back to Oct 28, 2022.  Lindsey and I wanted to bless BreAnne and a baby shower seemed the way to go! The thing is...time was getting close to Trudy's arrival, then folks were traveling, then everyone got sick...Yikes...but we pulled it off. LOL  It turned out to be a wonderful evening. Lindsey did the decorations, I did the food, Stacia did the cake and Arielle and Allie did the games! 

📷by Lindsey 

I loved the lights down here. It made the room feel much more welcoming. 

📷by Lindsey 

It was a great night of games, food, gifts, fellowship and fun. 

Allie made the pretzel rods

Bre and Lindsey 

Jenni and Stacia 

Stacia made the cake 

Nora

Jess, Krista and Ceceilia

Rebekah and Allie

Lindsey shared some words about Trudy and our hopes for her....

We circled up and prayed 

February Snippets

 Glimpses of the "little things" which gave the month meaning and fun.  Look at this sweet valentine!

Noah at about a month 📸by Larissa

Sisters! Bella and Trudy (about 3 months)

📸by BreAnne

We call this vibe night - a time when sisters (and Mom if I'm not too tired) relax together...this night was face masks and soaking - while Michael and I were in Hawaii. 

📷by Allie

Shaved Ice in honor of Hawaii - we have lots of snow. 

📷by Stacia

The one on the right is 2 oz - a LARGE egg - which makes most our eggs jumbo.

Stacia made these wonderful pillows of sweetness...

Bella with her flowery hair clip from Hawaii

📷by Bre

A boy with his box of treasures

Tuesday morning work out with the boys! 

Josiah helped Jared get the snow off their roof. 

Jared 📸by Larissa

Josiah 📸by Larissa

Hello! Sweet Noah! 

📸by Larissa

It's hard to believe February is already ending....on with March! 

Bit of An Odd Week

 It was a bit of an odd day. I won't be spending Tuesday morning with the boys....there is a bit more margin in my schedule this week. I had a pedicure. I went to a shop with one tech...and so it was quiet, just she and I...and while it's not a spa experience exactly - it is the closest to the pedicures I got in Korea and the Philippines. LOL  I sat by the window, watched the snow, read a book while my feet soaked....and Oy is good - a bit painful at times - but overall my feet are doing much better since I found her. Y'all she takes a cheese grater to my heels...she hasn't pulled out the razor as they did in Korea. 

There was far too much craziness at CoRielle's for them to work on Tuesday. I called to see if I could help in any way even though they didn't need me to babysit. Arielle asked me to take Little Buddy to therapy. I was happy for an outing with him. Such hugs and cuddles....and it was fun to see his love of Lane!!!! his therapist. Benny and Danny were a little sad they couldn't come to us. We stopped by my favorite coffee shack on the way home and bought drinks, got a free cookie and got some mini-doughnuts. They were satisfied with the treat...and got so much done while Little Buddy and I took care of business. 

Benny, what manner of craziness is THIS? Could it be a case of cabin fever? 

Dressed for the snowstorm?

No. 

Finally. 

After all the planning and saving...they were finally ready to launch Tuesday afternoon. 

Danny

Little Buddy and Cory 

Yes, see the gal peaking from the row behind? Stacia is with them. She is getting to enjoy an Auntie/Nanny gig. 

Danny, Arielle and Benny in row 1 

And late Tuesday night pieces of our heart landed in HAWAII! The two year olds are enjoying  the novelty of being up late at night. 

No March 1st snowstorm where they are! LOL 

Seesters (and toddlers) in Hawaii! 

Arielle, Danny, Stacia, Little Buddy 

Benny

Ending the day with some reading from Pickle Fairies - written for the kids by Stacia. 

It hasn't escaped my notice I am blogging THEIR Hawaiin vacation before ours! I must fix that. LOL 

*All photos from Hawaii were sent by either Arielle or Stacia. Mostly Arielle. 

Alaska Showed Off

 A big contingent of our family has been traveling to and from Hawaii since January. Tomorrow, six more make the jaunt across the pacific.  I think Alaska decided to show off and show us just what makes HER so special. 

Alaska may not have palm trees and beaches, but we had a light show like none I've seen before. It STARTED early in the night -  around 8:30 p.m. We stayed up and watched. The girls headed to bed about 10:30.  I headed to bed at 11:30 and Michael stayed up until 4:30. I got UP at 4:30 and they were still dancing across the sky. Whites and greens are the norm. We had pinks and even some reds last night! 

Photos are hard to catch.  One thing that irritates me about northern light photos is how many of them are edited to the point they look nothing like what you SEE when you look outside. Often, one sees wispy and white cloud-like pillars which show up green on the camera...but last night and this morning they were green, pink and red without the aid of a camera, filter, or editing program. I could enhance these photos Michael took and make them even more spectacular - but I'm not going to. Here they are as we saw them - no filters or enhancements. I did note lightening the color makes the pinks show up more....so I lightened the VERY last one so the pinks show...but we saw pinks on black next to green...and zillions of stars as we stood outside in our yard. 

It began with bright bands of green popping out the window. 

Then, the lights began dancing and changing colors. They danced across the sky, along mountain ridges...it was amazing. 

This is the same tree seen in a few prior shots. Taken at the same time. I simply clicked the little wand on Adobe photo editor. 

And so this morning...Michael is sleeping in after staying up all night taking photos. GG didn't get the memo and walk up with a bang at 6:30 a.m. The girls are up at 7 a.m. It's -6 at 8 a.m. and I'm putting off going outside to feed animals. BUT last night     ALASKA SHOWED OFF.